Help with my pricing

[Hosterer]

@Spark

Who are you renting to that I’m not renting to… that’s what I’m trying to figure out

Kindly describe your clientele - that probably makes it easier for us to understand. What type of accommodation do you offer, price range, occupancy rate things like that.

I’ve read on this forum about guests taking all kinds of things. That’s what I’m afraid of that personalized mugs for example that show local sights etc. might end up in the guests’ suitcases and the info that ‘they broke’…

@Thunderlake

I may be daft, probably, but I don’t follow the “that would make them walk.”

It’s a common saying in my native language (German) for things getting stolen.

@Mike_Kedanis

You may try raising your prices to be closer to or slightly higher than other similar Airbnb’s. I found that being a little more expensive gets you a better quality guest and better reviews even though what you were offering is the same. It tends to attract people who are not the bargain shoppers just looking for a cheap deal.

Same experience here.

[Spark]

@Hosterer

@Spark

Who are you renting to that I’m not renting to… that’s what I’m trying to figure out

Kindly describe your clientele - that probably makes it easier for us to understand. What type of accommodation do you offer, price range, occupancy rate things like that.

Our minimum is one week=, but we often get people staying 30 days or more. We are almost always fully booked back-to-back. In a typical year we get 10 - 15 changeovers. This year it will only be 3 or 4 because we have a group of three here on a one-year “work study” visa staying for nine months (their original reservation was 3 months). last year was closer to 20 changeovers.

Even though we are located in Canada (Vancouver) we get very few guests from Canada and even though we are just 18 miles from the US border, American guests are extremely rare… once every few years.

For some reason the vast majority of mourn guests are from China, TAIWAN, hONG kONG AND kOREA. (We are not Asian ourselves).

Because of our suburban location we do not get people coming to Vancouver to party. Many of the longer (28 days plus) are people moving to the region from elsewhere in Canada or from overseas.

The accommodations are a two bedroom self-contained private suite in our home. One of the bedrooms doubles as the living room – and it includes a piano and a fireplace. The house is surrounded by a massive showcase flower garden (in season), with flowers literally at the windows from Feb to October. Guests have a patio and a bench under 100-year old cedar trees where they can sit out (or eat in) the garden.

Using Airbnb “rules” the sliding-scale nightly rate drops steeply at 2weeks, even more steeply after 3 weeks and even more after 28 days. It’s actually above average for the shorter stays, slightly below for 28 days or more.

This certainly isn’t cookie-cutter accommodation. It has charm and character but is a far cry from “luxury” or “high end” About a third of our guests in the past two or three years say in their reviews this is the best-ever Airbnb.

[Hosterer]

Hats off to this explanation! Thank you so much.

This certainly paints a prettier picture and helps me to understand much better how you operate.

We have two small studios (one with kitchen, the other with a coffee corner/fridge) but both without washing machines! I guess this fact already deters most guests who are looking for more than a week. We did have up to 6 weeks stays and guests used the nearby laundromat but our initial plan on catering to longer stay guests did not work so smoothly.

Initially we set a 14 day minimum, which didn’t get us any bookings. Reduced it to one week and it started to catch on. However after a few bookings crickets again (flat 5 stars, Superhost, Guest favorite).

So we gradually reduced to 5,4 and now 3 days with most reservations being 3 days - go figure. We do get an occasional week or two in between but that’s rare.

Either way, we’re sitting on the border between Germany, France and Switzerland with a ‘big’ Swiss city close by. Lots of pharmaceutical companies and financial institutions there, plus construction on all sides of the borders going through the roof - so we do get a lot of workers as guests (some of which stay longer).

But we also have many tourists as there are many sights to see, especially if you want to visit all three countries.

Our bonus point is being located close to the international airport, train station but still in a very quiet corner of the city center. Many dining options in walking distance, excellent French bakery around the corner.

Business was really good in 2021/22 but then stalled quite a bit. Kept the rating, both studios Superhost/Guest Favorite.

We do have a quite restrictive check-in window (2pm-9pm) which also is problematic for many guests, due to their arrival times by train or plane. But we do welcome every single one of them in person.

Just trying to tweak the system to target our guests.

Thanks again for your great explanation!